Cambodia comes out

Cambodia and in particular Siem Reap - gateway to the famous Angkor Wat temple complex - is fast seeing an increase in gay tourism. Former Bangkok-based writer Robin Newbold checks out the scene and reveals what's in store for gay travelers.

Cambodia has got a nasty past. The twisted communist regime, headed by Pol Pot, and administered by his Khmer Rouge came to power in Cambodia in 1975 and wanted to create a nation of peasants where wealth, status and education were irrelevant. People were forced to work in fields or on government-approved building projects, while schools and universities were closed and anyone deemed a threat, from people who spoke a foreign language to those wearing glasses were interrogated and then executed. The authorities were said to have bludgeoned the country "back to the stone age" and a protracted guerrilla war ended only in 1998. But now the nation is reaping the peace dividend and with its chequered history of violence, its crumbling French colonial buildings, saffron-robed monks, ancient temples and newly emergent gay scene, it is at once characterful, edgy and colourful. Hopefully this influx of foreigners, along with the country's fledgling gay scene, does not mean the country will become a magnet for sex tourists as has happened in certain areas of Thailand because Cambodia, like its neighbour, is tolerant of difference in that it has no laws against homosexuality. "About being like Thailand, if that means go-go bars with sex shows, boys with numbers on their underwear waiting to be picked etc, I hope it does not go that way," said Martin Dishman, managing director of Siem Reap-based One Hotel and also the man behind local gay bar Linga.

Cambodia comes out